(Boise) – Marcus Young was sentenced today in Third District Court. District Judge George D. Carey ordered Young to serve up to six years in prison, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said. The Court retained jurisdiction for 180 days. Young will be required to register as a sex offender once he is released from custody.

Young, 32, pleaded guilty on July 30 to one count of possession of sexually exploitive materials and one count of destruction of evidence. Young was indicted on September 13, 2007, for five counts of possessing sexually exploitative materials and four counts of destruction of evidence.

The indictment alleged that when Young was placed on administrative leave from his job as the IT Manager for Canyon County, he went home and erased or used a “wiping program” to clean the county-owned computer hard drives. As a result of the “wiping program,” it took investigators over one year to analyze and conduct forensic analysis.

The indictment further accused Young of possessing, on four county computers, sexually exploitative images of young girls in various stages of dress and suggestive poses. Many of the young girls were fully nude, and the investigation revealed that the hard drives contained more than 100,000 images.

Young’s plea was made pursuant to the 1970 U.S. Supreme Court case of North Carolina v. Alford, which allows a defendant to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement while not admitting the acts. Courts treat an Alford plea the same as any other guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the Idaho State Police. The Attorney General’s Special Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case at the request of the Canyon County Commissioners. Deputy Attorney General Justin Whatcott prosecuted the case.